Innovation capacity from an international perspective

This chapter explores the enablers and potential drivers for innovation-led,sustainable economic growth in Kyrgyzstan. Enablers are factors that underpin future growth, such as infrastructure. Several of these factors will require substantial investment to avoid holding back further development. Investment has been skewed towardsspecific sectors, such as mining, but has neglected essential hard infrastructure, such as transport and telecommunications. Although, as an open economy, Kyrgyzstan’s trade intensity is high, an overreliance on imports combined with an overdependence on raw materials exports have undermined the emergence of strong productive capacities and meaningful integration into global value chains. While boasting relatively high levels of education, the quality of the education system has fallen since independence, and business surveys point to growing pockets of skills shortage that hold back innovative entrepreneurship and investment. Deficiencies in governance and the rule of law will hold back innovative, complex, highly interrelated activities in particular. Finally, the absorptive capacities of the private sector, essential to absorbing new technologies and business ideas, are falling behind those of other CIS countries and require concerted action.

Sustainable Development Goals:

Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure